Matt was born in Cuba, New Mexico and grew up in the deserts and mountains of the Southwest. When Matt was 13, his parents did the most horrendous thing they could possibly do: They uprooted and moved to Waukesha, Wisconsin, a vortex of sodden, gray, depressive days. After surviving high school, he tried a year at University of Wisconsin–Madison, but he went out on strike before the end of November and lost the nominal scholarship that might have kept him there. Following a period of, well, let's call it distraction, in San Francisco in the early 1970s, he completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California at Davis in 1973. Although intending to apply for a graduate program in Social Psychology, Matt erroneously applied and was accepted to the Experimental Psychology PhD Program at the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1977. Upon completing his PhD, he accepted a one-year, temporary appointment to the faculty at Hamline University, where he has taught for 40+ years and during which time served as chair of the Psychology Department for 25 years--25 consecutive years. He plans to retire in 2018, after 41 years at Hamline. Santa Fe is calling. He will be a sometimes cycling instructor (even if his certification expires) and full-time janitor at Santa Fe Thrive.

Matt currently lives in New Brighton, Minnesota with his wife, artist Marce Soderman. Their lives were run for 14 years by their relentless Standard Schnauzer, now departed--hopefully for a better place. We now welcome Carles Puyol and El Coco. These guys are his daughter's cats. As his future employer, she believes that they need to move in. So be it.